The oldest reconstructed ancestor of English, so far, is Proto-Indo-European.
Its root “skei-”, to cut, is thought to have given rise to the Latin “scire”,
to know, to discern one thing from another, and thence to “science”,
chopped-up knowledge.
Other words thought to derive from this root include “conscience”, “schism”,
“escutcheon”, and “shit”.
copyright 1991, 2023 Jay J.P. Scott
<jay@satirist.org>